She is going to never go near the pharaoh of Osirion again. Probably he didn't notice anything and is just from a country where women aren't people but - her gut says it was more than that and her gut is probably getting hypersensitive these days but it's a good enough reason to stay away. 

She already talked her way into serving food but she can make sure she's at the opposite end of the room. 

And she's not going to try the cactus for a week at least, just in case Leareth looking at her was him noticing something off about her stupid fucking life force which if she messed up the artifact probably looks like that of a fourth-circle caster and not that of a woman who could barely master Prestidigitation.

Leareth would not say that he's loving it, but it's much more enjoyable than he had expected, mostly thanks to Khemet's commentary. 

He stays with Aroden for most of it, being introduced to people and mostly focusing on not seeming scary. 

He's not scary at all he's adorable.

He's very charming and if he's not evil or advising Aroden badly in the war between Velgarth's and Golarion's gods he'll probably run the country very competently and she's so so scared of him.

Leareth spots her out of the corner of his eye and indicates this to Aroden. :The person I told you about, who Khemet had an odd feeling about: 

He isn't going to go dig up all the notes on her hiring process in the middle of an event, but he might as well try Detect Thoughts on her. 

She is refilling drinks. 

She blocks him out. 

Normal people do not block him out when he tries to detect their thoughts.

He goes still. He casts it as a spell rather than just using his permanent version, the spell is still a little stronger.

:Tell Khemet something is very worrying: he thinks loudly to Leareth. :She is blocking me too and she should not be able to: 

Leareth keeps a normal expression on his face, nods and smiles slightly in response to the words someone is saying to him which he's barely hearing at all, and Mindspeaks Khemet. :I think what you picked up from that servant was not nothing. She is blocking Aroden's Detect Thoughts: 

As a spell Aroden's Detect Thoughts works. She's thinking that the pharaoh of Osirion is part of the whole puzzle, presumably, he's also a cleric of Abadar - supposedly more than that but he really doesn't look like more than that - so it's a damned shame she can't get near him -

Khemet doesn't miss a beat in the story he is telling about how he met his husband.

:Should you get out of here. I think more people want you dead than the rest of us.:

Damn it. He is really, really not keen to get murdered again. 

:Aroden, Khemet says I should leave, I am going to Gate out: 

:One moment. If anything happens I will shield you, but - she is a spy and I wish to question her. I would prefer she not have any warning: 

He says something to the person they're talking to, and then in a single fluid motion he reaches for his Bag of Holding and draws out his metamagic rod of Reach Spell, and without warning Plane Shifts the servant to his magic-blocked demiplane.

- she tries to throw it off and almost - but he's absurdly powerful and the spell is absurdly powerful and now she's -

- somewhere else. 

Magic doesn't work.

Well, shit.

She collapses to her knees. I know that up to this point you have had zero guidance about anything but I could really use some right now.

It feels almost like there's a distant presence assuring her it will be fine but that's bullshit and she doesn't buy it.

She isn't necessarily the only threat in the room and so Leareth nonetheless Gates out on the spot, landing in one of the shielded areas he's set up that's well outside the Palace. 

Aroden gives some very polite apologies to the people they're talking to, excuses himself, and leaves the room. 

They have Telepathic Bond today, which has longer range, and so Leareth can still reach Khemet. :Are you all right?: 

:Yes but now my security's stressed. Pretty sure no one else in the room expected that at all or has any context on it but I'm not the mindreader.:

:Aroden read her thoughts on the second attempt and determined she was a spy. I did not wait for him to say more. I assume he Teleported her out to his demiplane and will proceed there to question her. I left anyway since she might not have been the only person involved: 

:Let me know when you hear an update from him.:

:Of course:

After some brief explanation to his staff, Aroden Plane Shifts himself to his personal demiplane and looks at the terrified servant huddling in his library. He’s silent for a moment, waiting to see what she’ll do.

Carissa kneels on the floor in the room with no magic and tries to stop having a panic attack. Hallucinatory Iomedae reassuring her that everything will be fine is not helping, go away hallucinatory Iomedae. 

What's going to happen. Face it, it's always more terrifying when you haven't spelled it out in your thoughts. She's going to die. Fine. Aroden doesn't get along with Asmodeus, doesn't want his people in Hell. Even the ones who fought against him. So she'll die, and she'll make Axis, and maybe Batty will eventually die of thirst on her bookshelf - no, they'll search her house - maybe Batty will get an afterlife too or maybe he'll turn back into a normal cactus or maybe he'll just stop existing, there's nothing at all she can do about that right now. She doesn't have enough of a grip on Aroden's personality to guess whether pleading for mercy for her cactus would entertain or anger him.  

Dying will probably hurt. That's - whatever. She wouldn't be having a panic attack if the thing that was going to happen was a drawn out and protracted Plane Shift to Axis. So she shouldn't be having one now. 

Magic won't work, anymore, when she's dead - there's different magic and she'll be able to learn it, she's a quick study, honestly it'll be less frustrating retraining after a decade spent on wizardry than it would be after eight decades spent on wizardry. (Her emotions don't buy this. They wanted those eight decades. But, well, we can't always get what we want, can we. A year ago she thought she would get only those eight decades, if she was careful, and then Hell. There's nothing to grieve, here, even if it feels like there is.)

They'll talk to her family, maybe. They'll be terrified, and then once they figure out there won't be retribution for them (will there be? for the cousin who sent her test scores, maybe...) - once that's all played out they'll be angry, embarrassed, disappointed, confused - she wasn't reckless -

- he won't let Asmodeus have her but there are other ways to make sure she doesn't get Axis, doesn't get any afterlife at all, and that'd be a reasonable and strategic sort of thing to do, just so your stewardship of a nice divine realm doesn't give people incentive to betray you -

This isn't helping her calm down, which isn't fair, this is supposed to help you calm down. Maybe it only works if you're panicking about something stupid and if you're panicking about your imminent execution then more detail doesn't help. 

You live in the world you live in. She's going to die; right now, she can have a clear head or not have a clear head, and it seems better to have a clear head, except she's terrified - what is she terrified of - 

- oh -

- she is terrified that there might be something she could say to Aroden so she doesn't die. And that's terrifying because that means it's not over, gods this is awful but at least when the spell caught her and she failed to fight it she thought it was over, and she doesn't have her hat pin of glibness or her god's guidance or anything at all, she just has to figure this out herself and the fact it might be possible to succeed makes it so, so much worse that she's almost definitely going to fail...

Calm down. Maybe that's what hallucinatory Iomedae meant, if she was not a hallucination, which she probably was. That there was still a way forward, that she needed to believe it was possible for things to be okay in order for her to see the route forward. Iomedae was a paladin. Paladins cannot be afraid. She'd think it a myth but she did a tour at the Worldwound, enchanting arms and armor, and she saw them, and it's real. Iomedae would not be afraid. Iomedae - can only give good advice if Carissa's not afraid, maybe, can only understand what routes forward Iomedae would take...

...she has no idea if that's true but it's less confusing than her goddess having given her this quest and then let her fail at it with no warning. 

Does she already know enough to convince Aroden of whatever he needs to be convinced of? But she barely knows anything...

When he teleports in she flinches and looks up at him and then back at the ground. "Your majesty," she says very quietly.

He still has Detect Thoughts and he can sense some of - her decision to stay calm, to keep trying something, and she's very, very panicked right now, with him showing up in front of her, but she's trying something...

"What is your name?" he asks first. Gently. It's not helpful for his purposes for her to be even more frightened.

"Carissa Sevar. Gave my real name when I applied. But my cousin's test scores."